embodiment

Etymology

It is formed from English embody + -ment.^[2][3][4] Embody is itself formed from em- and body, first in the 1540s of a soul or spirit given a bodily form.^[2] An older spelling was imbodiment, now rare.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A bringing into or presentation through a bodily or other form: Etymonline dates the word to 1824.^[2] The OED's first record, from 1828, is for the thing in which a principle or abstract idea is embodied,^[5] and Merriam-Webster also dates that sense to 1828.^[6][7] Dictionary.com gives 1820–30.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the senses of embody, which was used of souls given bodies from the 1540s and of principles and ideas expressed in a perceptible form from the 1660s.^[2] The concrete sense, a person or thing that perfectly represents a quality or idea, came first, in 1828;^[5][6] the bodily dwelling of a soul is recorded from 1850, and the action or state of embodying from 1858.^[5] The Mapping Metaphor project places it among words that describe exemplification and representation in terms of the human body, a link that arose in the first half of the 19th century.^[8] In patent law, an embodiment is a concrete form of an invention, or the part of a patent that describes it.^[9]

Timeline

• 1824 – a bringing into or presentation through a bodily form.^[2]
• 1828 – that in which a principle or idea is embodied.^[5][6]
• 1850 – the bodily dwelling of a soul.^[5]
• 1858 – the act or state of embodying.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person or thing that gives concrete form to a quality, idea or type; a perfect example or personification: The old captain was the embodiment of calm.^{[6][7][4][10]}
2. The act of embodying, or the state of being embodied.^{[6][7][10][5]}
3. (law) In a patent, a concrete form in which an invention is realized, or the part of the application describing it.^[9]

Related words

• embody
• body
• disembodiment

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk
9. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin